You decide: Which decade had the coolest cars?

1950's devotees attend the Hemsby Rock 'n' Roll Weekender in Hemsby, England. Twice a year fans of Rock and Roll, Rockabilly, Rockin' Blues the 1950s and Americana gather at Seacroft Holiday Camp in Hemsby to dress up in period clothing, drive 1950's cars and re-live the Rock 'n' Roll years.

Christopher Furlong, Getty Images

Each decade brought new styling and new technology to the automotive world. Which decade's aesthetic do you like the most?

by
Clayton Seams | January 29, 2015

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Let’s get something straight right away: The cars of today are empirically the best cars ever made. They’re faster, safer and more efficient than anything that came before. But what we want to know is which decade had the coolest cars. When Vin Diesel has to chase down bad guys, he doesn’t chase after them in a modern Porsche Cayman.

Below is a brief breakdown of each decade starting from when cars first became mainstream. We have picked one car from that decade that best embodied “cool” during that time period. At the very bottom of this post is a poll where you can cast your vote. Do you like the fins of the ’50s, the spoilers of the ’80s or the advanced engines of today? Let us know what decade you think had the coolest cars.

We’re starting this retrospective at the turn of the 2oth century. Cars existed before 1900, but were still in their primordial state at the time. In the 1900s, people still debated if cars were superior to horses. One of the cars that helped sway that debate was Henry Ford’s monstrous “999” racer famously piloted by Barney Oldfield to speeds up to 112.5 mph. The 999 was powered by a gargantuan 18.9L four-cylinder and was steered by a tiller. Steering wheels hadn’t really come into vogue yet. Another cool car from the era was the Baker electric car. These cars pioneered electric driving and comedian and prolific car collector Jay Leno currently owns one.

By the teens of the 20th century, this whole “horseless carriage” thing was really gaining momentum. Ford’s Model T helped get the world on wheels and race cars just kept getting faster. One of the coolest cars of the decade was the 1912 Mercer Raceabout. The Raceabout was a race car for public consumption. Owners could just remove the vestigial fenders and go racing. In the same time period, the Stutz Bearcat was a lot like a 1910s Chevrolet Corvette (before a Corvette was even a twinkle in someone’s eye). It was cheaper and less extreme than the Mercer. It had a 6.4L four-cylinder that was good for 60 horsepower and powered the Stutz to many racing victories. And what’s cooler than a monocle windscreen?

1920s

The design of the Type 52 is heavily influenced by the pictured Type 35.

The roaring ’20s were filled with roaring engines. If any race car could be called rolling art, it would be the Bugatti Type 35. The Type 35 used an advanced 12-valve 2.0L four-cylinder that revved to 6,000 rpm and made 60 horsepower. Some were supercharged for even more power. One of the Bugatti’s main competitors was a 1928 Duesenberg Model J that came with an 8.0L straight eight and cost as much to buy as a small country.

1930s

19. A 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe, not unlike the one pictured, sold for $7,920,000 at a Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach, California in August 2008.

The 1930s started much like the 1920s had ended, but most of the festivities came to a grinding halt after the 1932 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. Cool cars were still around, but very few luxury cars were made. Bugatti’s Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe was an ostentatious art-deco sculpture on wheels. Duesenberg also reached its zenith with the 320-horsepower supercharged SJ. These cars were bought by tycoons and Hollywood royalty. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Ford’s Model A was a simple, yet graceful car and was available with a flathead V8. Affordable V8 power made it extremely popular with hot rodders.

1940s

1950 Jaguar XK120.

Car production in the 1940s was largely marred by the Second World War. Most car factories were converted to military production and many large factories in Europe were bombed. But at the end of the decade, new and exciting cars began to appear. One of them was the Jaguar XK120, which was one of the fastest cars of the time. It also found varying degrees of success at Le Mans. In 1947, a little no-name company named Ferrari built a sports car called the 125 S with a 1.5L V12 engine. The little V12 was good for 118 horsepower at 6,800 rpm. How cool is that?

1950s

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

America’s obsession with space-age styling came to a peak in the 1950s. It seemed like every manufacturer (even staid old Studebaker) was adorning their cars with fins, chrome and rocket-themed touches. The 1959 Cadillac and 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air are great examples. The Bel Air was also available with a fuel-injected 283 horsepower V8! But many also consider the 1950s to be the golden age of sports cars. Ferrari created the beautiful Testarossa race car, Jaguar made the D Type and Mercedes built the achingly beautiful 300SL gullwing. This was a fantastic decade for car design.

Ahhh the ’60s. When cigarette lighters were used more often than seat belts and horsepower was measured in multiples of 100. The 1967 Corvette Sting Ray could be bought with a fire-breathing 427, Shelby GT350s dominated SCCA races and Lamborghini released the revolutionary Miura. Other cool cars from this decade include the suicide-door Lincoln Continental and the world-beating Ferrari 250 GTO. The iconic Volkswagen Beetle also found popularity in North America during the 1960s.

1970s

1974 Lamborghini Countach

The 1970s were a difficult decade for car manufacturers. They had been dealt a double blow by skyrocketing gas prices and stringent emissions standards and, as a result, horsepower plummeted. There were, however, a few standouts. Pontiac kept the muscle car torch burning by offering high-performance 400 and 455-cubic-inch V8s through to the bitter end in 1980. Lamborghini also launched its stunning Countach in 1974, though it wouldn’t make it to Canadian shores until the 1980s. Porsche combated falling horsepower by utilizing turbocharging. The 1976 Porsche 930 Turbo became an instant icon and a must-have item for the car-phone set.

1980s

Ferrari Testarossa

It took manufacturers nearly a decade, but by the mid 1980s, power levels were back up to acceptable standards. Digital dashboards, origami styling and TURBO stickers on every panel made cars from the ’80s unique. Cool cars of the ’80s included the BMW M3, Ford Mustang 5.0 and the completely redesigned C4 Corvette. Mazda’s RX-7 gained a turbocharger and Japanese cars really started to become a force to be reckoned with. The Lamborghini Countach gained spoilers and scoops to compete with Ferrari’s oh-so-Miami-Vice Testarossa. These cars became icons of the decade and adorned the bedroom walls of kids everywhere.

1990s

Mazda RX-7

The 1990s were really the decade for Japanese manufacturers to shine. It seemed like every Japanese manufacturer offered a twin-turbo flagship sports car. The coolest Japanese cars of the decade include the Mazda RX-7, Nissan 300ZX twin turbo, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Toyota Supra twin turbo, Honda NSX, and the Japan-only Skyline GT-R. America was hardly standing still that decade and released the Corvette ZR-1 and the brutal Dodge Viper RT/10. Prices for these modern classics are already high and many consider this decade to be the golden age of Japanese sports cars.

2000s

Ford celebrated its 100th anniversary with the GT, a rather awesome birthday present.

The 2000s saw a revitalization of the supercar genre. Ford released a supercharged Ford GT, Lamborghini unveiled the stunning Murcielago and Ferrari created its fastest model yet, the Enzo. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Honda’s S2000 defined what a small sports car should be and Subaru’s STI was terrorizing rally stages and snowy backstreets alike.

Right now

2016 Acura NSX

Maybe you don’t like living in the past and think the coolest cars ever made are being made right now. The McLaren P1, Porsche 918 and LaFerrari are pushing the limit for what street cars are capable of. The Subaru/Scion twins brought back cheap, rear-wheel-drive fun and the Dodge Challenger Hellcat makes more than double the power of a 1970 Challenger.

But what do you think? What decade produced the coolest cars of all time?